Dr. Wayne Backes Announces Retirement After 42 Years of Service
Wayne L. Backes, PhD, Associate Dean for Research for the School of Medicine and the Joseph M. Moerschbaecher III, Professor in Pharmacology, recently announced that after 42 years of service to the LSU School of Medicine, he plans to retire July 31, 2026.
Dr. Backes earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Western Maryland College in Westminster, MD and a PhD in biochemistry from West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. He studied pharmacology as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Connecticut in Farmington, CT, where he became an assistant professor before joining the LSU School of Medicine.
Dr. Backes’ career with the LSU School of Medicine began in July 1984 as an Assistant Professor. As an active research scientist in the department of pharmacology and the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center, he has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1989. His research focused on drug metabolism, specifically, understanding how cytochrome P450 system proteins are organized in the endoplasmic reticulum, and how their organization affects function of the drug metabolizing enzymes. His research also examines how protein-lipid interactions influence the localization of P450 system proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). He worked to identify the amino acid segments responsible for raft and non-raft targeting of ER proteins. He has authored more than 100 publications in scientific journals.
“Going from college to graduate school, to postdoctoral work and finally to a faculty position, I expected to only be at the LSU Medical Center for about five years,” he said. “Little did I know that the collegiality, support, and friendships with so many of the people who make up the LSU Health Sciences Center would make this a place that I would call home.”
While serving as Acting Head of Pharmacology, in conjunction with the other basic science department heads, he developed the initial version of the research incentive compensation plan. He was appointed as the Associate Dean for Research by Dr. Robert Marier in 2001, where he developed the initial version of the Faculty Interests Database that was improved and redesigned by Dr. Jean Jacob. He is widely credited with bringing new services and programs to the Office of Research, building it into the robust office it is today. Along with Dr. Steve Nelson, Dr. Backes was responsible for expanding and developing the intramural research grant programs, including the bridge and new project intramural grant programs, the clinical research grant and resident research grant programs, and the LSUHSC-Wide Intramural Research Program (WIRP). They also established the junior faculty mentoring program.
He held many memberships during his career, including organizations such as the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the British Pharmacology Society. He held numerous positions as a member of ASPET, serving in the Drug Metabolism and Toxicology divisions. He was elected as Councilor in 2015, President of ASPET in 2019 and was recognized as an ASPET Fellow in 2022. He currently serves as Associate Editor for the journal Drug Metabolism and Disposition and for the Journal of Xenobiotics.